The Lexus LBX Morizo RR is a 300bhp, GR Yaris-engined performance crossover

The Lexus LBX Morizo RR Concept is a big name for a small car that – in genuinely surprising news – now packs a big punch. A GR Yaris-shaped punch. Because it’s got the engine from a Toyota GR Yaris.

Only in this concept iteration, revealed at the 2024 Tokyo Auto Salon, the three-cylinder, 1.6-litre ‘G16E-GTS’ turbocharged petrol engine is able to generate 300bhp and 295lb ft of torque. This is considerably more than a regular Lexus LBX, which uses a Yaris Cross’s hybrid… oh, wait, you’ve already stopped listening.

How does the revelation that “all key elements of the car have been honed for performance” strike you? Lexus tells us the body, suspension, the ‘packaging’ – heck, even the tyres – have all been turned up to 11.

Plus, the development team have applied learnings from – genuinely – “high-speed air racing” to enhance the Morizo’s aerodynamic properties. Now all you’re imagining is sending this 4WD crossover through the air.

It’ll probably take it. We’re told the Boss himself has had a hand in developing the LBX concept: none other than Toyota chairman and ‘master driver’ Akio Toyoda. Mr Toyoda is known as ‘Morizo’, hence the name.

“The result is a car that embodies a sense of casual luxury and has the reassuring, rewarding quality of a trusted driving partner,” said Lexus. The regular LBX is a worthy small car. The RR concept turns it into a bit of a rally raider. Like it?